This application includes a microfiche appendix for Appendices A-L. The microfiche appendix consists of five sheets and 406 frames.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise the copyright owner reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of manufacturing and to the production of components, such as sheet metal components. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for managing and distributing design and manufacturing information throughout a factory in order to facilitate the production of bent sheet metal components.
2. Background Information
Traditionally, the production of bent sheet metal components at, for example, a progressive sheet metal manufacturing facility, involves a series of production and manufacturing stages. The first stage is a design stage during which a sheet metal part design is developed based on a customer""s specifications. A customer will typically place an order for a particular sheet metal component to be produced at the facility. The customer""s order will usually include the necessary product and design information so that the component may be manufactured by the factory. This information may include, for example, the geometric dimensions of the part, the material required for the part (e.g., steel, stainless steel, or aluminum), special forming information, the batch size, the delivery date, etc. The sheet metal part requested by the customer may be designed and produced for a wide variety of applications. For example, the produced component may ultimately be used as an outer casing for a computer, an electrical switchboard, an armrest in an airplane, or part of a door panel for a car.
During the design stage, a sheet metal part design may be developed by the design office of the manufacturing facility using an appropriate Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system. Based on a customer""s specifications, a 2-dimensional (2-D) model of the sheet metal part may be developed by a programmer with the CAD system. Typically, a customer will provided a blueprint containing one or more drawings of the component and the critical geometric dimensions of the part. The blueprint may also indicate any special forming or marking to be included in the part, as well as the location of holes or other types of openings on the surface(s) of the sheet metal part. The design programmer will often use this blueprint to develop a 2-D model on the CAD system. The 2-D model may include a flat view and one or more other perspective views of the sheet metal part, with bending line and/or dimensional information.
Before actual bending of the sheet metal part takes place, the part must first be punched and/or cut from initial stock material. Computer Numerical Control (CNC) or Numerical Control (NC) systems are typically used to control and operate punch presses and plasma or laser cutting machinery to process the stock material. In order to facilitate processing of the stock material, a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) system or CAD/CAM system can be used by a design programmer to generate control code based on the 2-D model. The control code may comprise a part program that is imported to and utilized by the punch press and/or cutting machinery to punch or cut the sheet metal component from the stock material.
The next stage in the production process is a bending plan stage. During this stage, a bending plan is developed by a bending operator at the shop floor. The operator will normally be provided with the blueprint or 2-D drawing of the component, along with one or more samples of the cut or punched stock material. With these materials, the bending operator will develop a bending plan which defines the tooling to be used and the sequence of bends to be performed. The bending workstation may include CNC metal bending machinery, such as a CNC press brake, that enables the operator to enter data and develop a bending code or program based on the bending plan.
Once the bending plan is developed, the operator will set up the workstation for initial testing of the bending sequence. During this testing stage, the punched or cut stock material will be manually loaded into the press brake and the press brake will be operated to execute the programmed sequence of bends on the workpiece. The operator will analyze the final bent sheet metal part and inspect it for conformance with the customer""s specification. Based on the results of the initial runs of the press brake, the operator may modify the bending sequence by editing the bending program. The operator may also provide feedback to the design office so that the sheet metal part design can be appropriately modified. Further testing will typically be conducted until the bent sheet metal component is within the required design specifications.
One of the final stages in the production process is the bending stage. After the bending plan has been developed and tested, the bending operator will set up the required tooling at the bending station and operate the press brake based on the bending plan and the stored bending program or code. Job scheduling is also performed in order to ensure that the necessary amount of punched or cut stock material will be available on time at the bending station, and so that other jobs will be completed by the requested delivery dates. Job scheduling may be developed or modified by a shop floor foreman during the earlier stages of the production process and/or concurrently throughout the entire process. After the final bent sheet metal parts have been produced, the parts may then be assembled and packaged for shipping to the customer.
The conventional production and manufacturing process described above suffers from several drawbacks and disadvantages. For example, although the design and manufacturing data for each customer""s order Is normally archived physically (e.g., by paper in a file cabinet) or electronically (e.g., by storing on a disk or magnetic tape), such data are normally stored separately and not easily retrievable. Further, in most factory settings, the distribution of critical job information takes the form of a paper job or work sheet that is distributed throughout the factory floor. As a result, data is often lost or damaged, and it is difficult to search for both the design and manufacturing data relating to a previous or similar job. In addition, due to the inefficient manner in which the data is stored, valuable time is lost in attempting to distribute the design and manufacturing information to the shop floor and to other locations throughout the factory. Considerable manufacturing time is also lost during the development of the sheet metal part design and bending plan, since the development of the part design and bending plan is primarily performed by the design programmer and bending operator, and relies heavily on the individual""s knowledge, skill and experience.
In recent years, there have been developments and attempts to improve the conventional sheet metal manufacturing process and to improve the efficiency of the overall process. For example, the use and development of 2-D and 3-dimensional (3-D) modeling in commercially available CAD/CAM systems has facilitated and improved the production process and modeling of bent sheet metal components. The design programmer and operator can now utilize both the 2-D and 3-D representations to better understand the geometry of the part and more efficiently develop a part design and bending code sequence. The ability to store and transfer data electronically has also improved the flow of information from the design office to locations on the shop floor. With the advancement of computers and data communication networks, it is no longer necessary to search through a cabinet or file of old paper tapes or magnetic disks.
Despite such advancements, there is still a need to improve the organization and flow of design and manufacturing information throughout the factory environment. For example, conventional manufacturing systems do not logically associate both critical design and manufacturing information associated with each customer""s order so that it may be easily accessed and retrieved from any area in the factory. Previous systems also fail to provide the ability to search previous job information based on various criteria, such as the.features and attributes of the sheet metal component. The ability to search and retrieve previous job information based on, for example, an identical or similar part search, would greatly enhance the overall production process and reduce the required manufacturing time for future jobs.
Past attempts also fail to facilitate the development of the sheet metal part design and bending plan by the design programmer and shop floor operator. While the introduction of 2-D and 3-D modeling systems have enabled the designer to have a better understanding of the shape and geometry of the part, such systems have not reduced the burdens placed on the design programmer and shop floor operator. For example, such systems have not enabled the design programmer to easily convert an existing 2-D CAD model into a 3-D representation. In addition, while 2-D and/or 3-D drawings of the component may be provided to the shop floor operator to assist in the development of the bending plan, the operator must still determine and develop the tooling requirements and bending sequence by hand and/or experimentation.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention, through one or more of its various aspects, embodiments and/or specific features or sub-components thereof, is provided to bring about one or more objects and advantages, such as those specifically noted below.
A general object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for managing and distributing design and manufacturing information throughout a factory in order to facilitate the production of components, such as bent sheet metal components.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method that prevents the loss or destruction of critical job information, and that enhances the efficiency and organization of stored expert knowledge at, for example, a progressive sheet metal production facility.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and method for logically storing both the design and manufacturing information for each customer""s order, so that it may be easily accessed and retrieved from any area in the factory.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for managing and distributing design and manufacturing information, wherein the job data is stored at a central database or file server in a logical fashion so that it may be easily searched and retrieved from any location throughout the factory. The job data may provide not only the design and manufacturing information associated with the job, but also the actual bend code for executing the required bending operations.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for searching previous job information, including design and manufacturing information, based on various search criteria. The search criteria may include, for example, the basic features and attributes of the sheet metal component to be manufactured, so that previous job information relating to an identical or similar part can be utilized to reduce the overall manufacturing time of future jobs.
Another object of the present invention is to replace the traditional paper job or work sheet, associated with each customer""s order, with an electronic job sheet that can be instantaneously accessed from any location in the factory. The electronic job sheet may be displayed at any location and include critical design and manufacturing information, including the 2-D and/or 3-D model view of the component, the tooling selection, the optimum bending sequence, the required staging information, and the bar code or identification number associated with the job. The electronic job sheet may also include an audio and/or video portion recorded by a bending operator to indicate, for example, any special instructions or procedures that may be helpful when running the same job or a similar job again in the future.
Another object of the invention is to shorten the time required to analyze a part drawing by providing 2-D and 3-D computerized views of the sheet metal part. Various viewing modes may be provided, including a solid 3-D viewing mode, a 3-D wire frame viewing mode, a 2-D flat screen viewing mode, and an orthographic viewing mode. Different viewing functions may also be provided, including zooming, panning, rotating and auto-dimensioning, to facilitate analysis of the sheet metal part.
A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and method that facilitates the development of the sheet metal part design and bending plan by the design programmer and shop floor operator. For example, it is an object of the present invention to enable the design programmer to easily develop a 3-D representation of the component from an existing 2-D model. It is also another object of the invention to provide a graphical user interface to shorten the time required to develop the bending plan and programmed bending code.
The present invention, therefore, is directed o an object oriented bend model stored in a computer readable medium for representing a part (e.g., a sheet metal part) to be produced at a facility. The object oriented bend model comprises a part class including a plurality of objects having part information relating to features of the part and bending information relating to bending operations to be performed on the part. The part information may include part design and manufacturing information, and the part design information may relate to representations of the part in both 2-D coordinate space and 3-D coordinate space. In addition, the bending information may comprise a group of objects with bending data and instructions for performing the bending operations at bendlines of the part. The bending data may include a bend angle amount and a bend radius amount
According to an aspect of the invention, the part class may include attributes comprising bend sequence information relating to the order in which the bending operations are to be performed on the part. The attributes may also comprise a part material type and a part thickness. Further, the above-noted plurality of objects may comprise a faces object, wherein the faces object includes design data relating to the dimensions of each face of the part and location data relating to a representation of each face of the part within at least one predetermined coordinate space. The plurality of objects may also comprise a bendlines object, wherein the bendlines object includes design data relating to the dimensions of each bendline of the part and location data relating to a representation of each bendline of the part within at least one predetermined coordinate space. The bendlines object may also comprise bend manufacturing data relating to the bending operations to be performed on the part. The bend manufacturing data may include V-width data and bend pitch and orientation data for each bendline of the part.
The plurality of objects of the bend model may also include a holes object and a formings object. The holes object may include design data relating to the dimensions of at least one hole in the part and location data relating to a representation of each hole of the part within at least one predetermined coordinate space. The formings object may comprise design data relating to the dimensions of each forming of the part and location data relating to a representation of each forming of the part within at least one predetermined coordinate space. A topology object and a bend properties object may also be provided. The topology object may include part topology data relating to features of the part, wherein the features of the part may comprise at least one of a face, hole, forming or bendline of the part. In addition, the bend properties object may include manufacturing constraint data relating to the part.
The present invention is also directed to an object oriented bend model stored in a computer readable medium for representing a sheet metal part to be produced at a production facility. The object oriented bend model comprises a part class including a part object having a plurality of part attributes and a plurality of objects for representing the sheet metal part in both 2-D coordinate space and 3-D coordinate space. The plurality of objects include design information relating to features of the sheet metal part and bending information for performing at least one bending operation on the sheet metal part. The features of the part may include a face, a hole, a forming and/or a bendline, and the plurality of objects may comprise a face object, a hole object, a forming object and/or a bendline object.
The bending information may relate to a plurality of bending operations to be performed on the sheet metal part. The bending information may comprise a group of objects with bending data and instructions for performing at least one bending operation on the sheet metal part. The bending data may include, for example, a bend angle amount and a bend radius amount. In addition, the part attributes may comprise bend sequence information relating to the order in which the bending operations are to be performed on the sheet metal part. The part attributes may also comprise a part material type and a part thickness.
According to another aspect of the invention, an object oriented bend model viewer is provided that is adapted for use in a computer-controlled system. The computer-controlled system includes a database for storing bend model data relating to the part and a display device for displaying images of the part. The object oriented bend model viewer comprises a bend model viewer view class including view model attributes and at least one viewing function implemented as a member function of the bend model viewer view class. At least one image of the part may be rendered on the display device of the computer-controlled system based on the bend model data and the view model attributes.
Various additional features may be provided in the object oriented bend model viewer of the present invention. For example, the view model attributes may comprise display information relating to a predetermined view mode or modes, wherein the predetermined view mode or modes include(g) a solid view mode, a wire frame view mode, a 2-D flat view mode, and/or an orthographic view mode. The bend model viewer view class may also further comprise information for modifying an image of the part in accordance with one or more viewing functions. The viewing functions may include, for example, a zooming function, a rotating function, a panning function and/or a dimension function. The zooming function may comprise an operation for zooming the image of the part on the display device, and the rotating function may comprise an operation for rotating the image of the part. Further, the panning function may include an operation for panning the image of the part on the display device, and the dimension function may comprise an operation for modifying the image of the part to additionally display dimension information relating to at least one feature of the part. The dimension information may include a length of at least one bendline of the part, a bending angle of each bendline of the part, and/or a length of at least one flange portion of the part.
The object oriented bend model viewer may also comprise a visibility function for maintaining and providing visibility information relating to the features of the part that are visible on the display device based on the current rendered view of the image of the part. The bend model viewer view class may include information for modifying the image of the part in accordance with the at least one viewing function, wherein the viewing function comprises a dimension function which includes an operation for modifying the image of the part, based on the visibility information, to display dimension information relating to visible features of the part. In addition, the object oriented bend model viewer may include zoom factor information relating to the zoom factor of the current rendered view of the image of the part on the display device.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a system for manipulating a displayed image of a part is provided. The displayed image of the part may be displayed on a screen in 3-D coordinate space. The system comprises: an input device (such as a joystick device or a mouse device) for generating command signals, the command signals relating to at least one predetermined viewing function adapted to modify the displayed image of the part; a current view determination system for determining a current view of the displayed image; a setting system for dynamically setting a rotation axis of the part based on the current view of the displayed image; and an image modification system for modifying the displayed image of the part, in accordance with the viewing function, based on the command signals and the rotation axis.
The predetermined viewing function may comprise a rotating function and the image modification system may be adapted to rotate the displayed image of the part about the rotation axis based on the command signals. Further, the current view determination system may be adapted to determine whether the current view of the displayed image of the part on the screen is an entire view of the part or a partial view of the part. The setting system may be adapted to set the rotation axis of the part so as to pass through a geometric center of the part when the current view determination system determines that the current view of the displayed image of the part is an entire view. In addition, the setting system may be adapted to set the rotation axis of the part to pass through a center of the screen when the current view determination system determines that the current view of the displayed image of the part is a partial view.
Other features may also be provided in the system. For example, a part visibility system may be provided for determining if a portion of the part is visible at the center of the screen based on the current view. In such a case, the setting system may be adapted to set the rotation axis to pass through the portion of the part at the center of the screen when the part visibility system determines that the portion of the part is visible. Further, the setting system may be adapted to set the rotation axis to pass through the center of the screen at a Z-coordinate of the geometric center of the part when the part visibility system determines that the portion of the part is not visible at the center of the screen.
A system may be provided for identifying a portion of the part that is located at the center of the screen and that is closest to a camera view of the screen when the current view determination system determines that the current view of the displayed image of the part is a partial view. An object detecting system may also be provided for determining if the identified portion of the part corresponds to an opening of the part. When the object detecting system determines that the identified portion of the part does not relate to an opening of the part, the calculation system may be adapted to set the rotation axis to pass through the identified portion of the part. Further, the setting system may be adapted to set the rotation axis to pass through the center of the screen, at a depth corresponding to a Z-coordinate of the geometric center of the part, when the object detecting system determines that the identified portion of the part relates to an opening of the part.
The input device may comprise a joystick device and/or a mouse device. The joystick device may include a joystick virtual space, wherein the command signals from the device include information relating to the movements of the joystick device within the joystick virtual space. The image modification system may comprise a mapping system for mapping the movements of the joystick device within the joystick virtual space to cursor movements within a screen space of the screen, such that the image modification system modifies the displayed image of the part based on the cursor movements mapped from the joystick movements. The mapping system may be adapted to map the movements of the joystick device to cursor movements in the screen space based on a ratio of the size of the screen space to the size of the joystick virtual space. For example, the cursor movements may be mapped by the mapping system in accordance with the following equation:
current_point=previous_point+(scale_factor x V),
wherein xe2x80x9ccurrent_pointxe2x80x9d is the current point of a cursor in the screen space, xe2x80x9cprevious_pointxe2x80x9d is the previous point of the cursor in the screen space, xe2x80x9cscale_factorxe2x80x9d is the ratio of the size of the screen space to the size of the joystick virtual space; and xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d is a vector relating to the movement and direction of the joystick device from a joystick origin to a joystick current position in the joystick virtual space.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the mapping system may comprise a scaling adjustment system for adjusting the scale_factor used by the mapping system. The scaling adjustment system may be adapted to multiply the ratio of the size of the screen space to the size of the joystick virtual space by a predetermined adjustment factor to provide an adjusted scale_factor, and the mapping system may be adapted to use the adjusted scale_factor when mapping the joystick movements. By way of non-limiting example, an adjustment factor of 3 may be used.
The present invention also includes a method for manipulating a displayed image of a part, wherein the displayed image of the part is displayed on a screen in 3-D coordinate space. The method comprises the steps of: receiving command signals generated from an input device, the command signals relating to at least one predetermined viewing function which is adapted to modify the displayed image of the part; determining a current view of the displayed image of the part on the screen; dynamically setting a rotation axis of the part based on the current view of the part; and modifying the displayed image of the part, in accordance with the viewing function, based on the command signals and the rotation axis.
According to the above-noted method of the invention, the predetermined viewing function may comprise a rotating function, whereby the displayed image of the part is rotated about the rotation axis based on the command signals. Further, the step of setting may comprise setting the rotation axis of the part so as to pass through a geometric center of the part when the current view of the displayed image of the part is determined to be an entire view. The step of setting may also comprise setting the rotation axis of the part to pass through a center of the screen when the current view of the displayed image of the part is determined to be a partial view.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method and system for displaying dimensional information with an image of a part on a screen is provided. The method may comprise the steps of: determining a current view of the displayed image of the past and determining which of the features are visible on the screen based on the current view; and selectively displaying, on the screen with the displayed image of the part, dimensional information for only each of the features of the part that are determined to be visible on the screen.
The method may further include accessing bend model data relating to the part and determining, based on the bend model data, all possible locations on the screen for displaying the dimensional information for each of the features of the part. Further, the step of selectively displaying may include applying predetermined heuristics to determine where to display the dimensional information of the visible features based on the possible locations. The heuristics may comprise displaying the dimensional information at a location on the screen that is outside of the displayed image of the part, displaying he dimensional information at a location on the screen that is closer to a viewpoint of a viewer, and/or displaying the dimensional information so that the dimensional information does not overlap on the screen.
The dimensional information that is displayed may comprises the bendline length and bend angle for each bendline of the part. The dimensional information may also include the inside bend radius and bend deduction amount related to each bendline of the part, as wherein the step of displaying displays the bendline length, bend angle, bend radius and/or bend deduction amount for each bendline of the part that is determined to be visible based on the current view. Other dimensional information, such as the flange length of each flange portion of the part, may also be displayed. Additional information, such as the width, depth and height of the part, may also be displayed.
The step of selectively displaying may include performing an auto-dimensioning operation to display the dimensional information of only predetermined features of the part, such that the dimensional information is displayed for only the predetermined features that are determined to be visible. In addition, the step of the selectively displaying may include performing a manual dimensioning operation to display user-selected dimensional information relating to features of the part, such that each the user-selected dimensional information is displayed for only the features of the part that are determined to be visible.
A system for displaying dimensional information with an image of a part displayed on a screen may also be provided. The system includes a system for determining a current view of the displayed image of the part and for determining which of the features are visible on the screen based on the current view, and a system for selectively displaying, on the screen with the displayed image of the part, dimensional information for only the features of the part that are determined to be visible on the screen.
An accessing system may also be provided for accessing bend model data relating to the parts as well as a system for determining, based on-the bend model data, all possible locations on the screen for displaying the dimensional information for each of the features of the part. The selective displaying system may include a system for applying predetermined heuristics to determine where to display the dimensional information of the visible features based on the possible locations. The dimensional information that is displayed may comprise the bendline length, bend angle, bend radius and/or bend deduction amount for each bendline of the part determined to be visible based on the current view. Other dimensional information, such as the flange length of each flange portion of the part, may also be displayed. Additional information, such as the width; depth and height of the part, may also be displayed, according to the present invention.
Further features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those noted above. For example, the invention may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the above-described features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features noted below in the detailed description.
The above-listed and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will more be more fully set forth hereinafter.